


Bath Tub

by AngelofKairos



Category: Red Queen - Victoria Aveyard
Genre: Book 3: King's Cage, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-02
Updated: 2017-04-02
Packaged: 2018-10-14 00:37:13
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 757
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10525242
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AngelofKairos/pseuds/AngelofKairos
Summary: ‘He sits up sharply, his naked torso almost as white as the bathwater’ Victoria Aveyard





	

**Author's Note:**

> What some of us were secretly begging for when Mare Interrupts King Maven Calore’s bathing. Need I say more?

There’s something so wrong yet beautiful about seeing a boy of fire surrounded by milky water. I can almost picture his blue flames dancing on the surface, causing a soft fog of steam to rise. But no cloud could block the vivid blue stare. 

He wants me.

I hated that most. I hated him. But even through every cruel act he’s done, far more times he has shown me kindness. If he’d been the boy I knew I’d dare say signs of love. Maven’s feeling can no longer be considered that, more of a twisted obsession to protect his electric rose.   
“Join me.” I look up forgetting just how much of his bare chest was showing. He smiles as my eyes flicker up in mistake. He knows as well as I do that my face of disgust is a lie and the image of his pale skin is in the forefront of my mind.

He bunches up in the bath tub, not to make space but to flash more of that monstrous cold skin. Now it made sense. Why my shower had mysteriously stopped working last night. He’d planned this. He’d wanted me dirty, uncomfortable, even though he knew I’d have it worse in the stilts. Being surrounded by the silvers world has made me more starkly aware of self-maintenance. I was tired of holding on to my hate for him, he’d always called himself the shadow, but he was as much of a flame as his brother. Perhaps I could find warmth in his far-reaching darkness. I slipped my simple shirt and pants to the floor, being in just underwear in front of him rose not a single drop of embarrassment. His eyes raking over me should have disgusted me, instead It felt like my electric had returned as currents buzzed through my skin.  
I was about to step in before he spoke again through an irritating smile. “No need to be shy Mare, your making me feel underdressed” raising his arm out of the bath to rest it on the side, yet another surface of skin to catch my eye. I didn’t smile back, but sure enough the only pieces of covering I had left thumped softly on to the stone floor. The water was surprisingly warm, I could see that his fingertips had begun to wrinkle showing he must have been in here for some time. That just confirmed he was the heating system, the water warmed by his body. It only seemed to get hotter, my skin blushing pink. We were on opposite sides of the bath yet it felt like he was so close, burning all around me. 

Maven let out a laugh, I couldn’t help but copy. This was beyond weird, but somehow the weight of rejecting every pull towards him had felt heavier than the blocks of silent stone and fists of Arven’s silence. Here we were. Naked in a bath tub.   
For a moment, we just sit there, occasionally rippling the water with a shift of position. The warmth relaxes my muscles and I’m thrown back to my time as Mareena. As glad as I am my blood runs red nobody could deny that want for silver luxury.

“I had this bath custom made…” he begins, running his hand along the edge. My peace shattered beautifully.   
“it’s just the right shape don’t you think.”   
I’m sitting low enough to cover my breasts but he stares at the clouded water where they are anyway before making eye contact.   
“I suppose so.” feeling my cheeks burn. He stretches, a foot brushing against my thigh. I’m frozen and torn, can ice melt and shatter at the same time? I let out a slow breath, encouraging him only further. He sits further up in the bath, leaning closer. I can see his torso more clearly now, broad but with an agile thinness. His ribs barely covered with fine constant meals. Soon his face is so close now, the steam no longer blocking my view of his sharp features, I don’t see the monster or the boy. I see both in the world’s most curious mash-up of the innocent loving young king who would quite literally kill children for what he wanted. 

“I never wanted you locked away, I wanted you to be mine. Like this” the distance collapsing in a second as his mouth burns against my mine, I let him move over me. It’s no longer the leash that pulls me to follow him but an ache I’d subdued for so long.


End file.
